Triple-Edged Sword is Out!

On the planet Arcadia, the shattered survivors of a great holocaust continue to wage the war that destroyed their civilization, the last generation of soldiers preparing to fight the final battle, finally ending all life in their system. Only the arrival of the Battlecruiser Alamo, launched on her mission of exploration, offers the chance of a better fate for the last Arcadians. Can Lieutenant-Captain Margaret Orlova and her crew find a way to stop the bloodshed, or must they preside over the final end of a once-great civilization?

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Forbidden Seas - Cover Reveal...

Triple-Edged Sword - Cover Reveal...

Triple-Edged Sword, Day Fifteen

Well, at long last, it is done. After two attempts, 'Triple-Edged Sword' is finally finished and on its way to the beta readers. I can now say with some certainly that it will be on sale on the 29th of February. Oddly, trying this again resulted in one of the smoother writing sessions I've ever managed. The book went pretty much according to plan, with no real writing blind alleys – though I did end up rewriting two chapters when I realized I was following the evil maxim of 'tell, not show', and had to hurriedly fix it...but at last it is done, coming in at just under 71,000 words.

They say you learn a lot more from failure than success, and believe me, that was true in spades as far as this book was concerned. While the second attempt took fifteen days, I've been working on a novel with this name since January 1st, with hardly a break. The moral of the story is that I need to make sure I have a much better outline when I start; last time I was vague about the ending, and it really cost me. This time I had it all planned out, and while I ended up changing the ending...twice...at least I had some idea of where I was going, and that made it a lot easier.

Something else I will stress again – the keyboard was a godsend. Not only was my typing speed slightly increased, but I had far fewer aches and pains after each session. Normally I wouldn't choose to write a book in twelve days straight, but this time I just didn't really feel a need to take a break in the middle...and I think that helped as well, as it meant that everything could flow more freely, and I could keep hold of plot threads more tightly. I've done a lot of work on refining my techniques with this one, and those are lessons that I'm going to be taking full advantage of in future books.

What comes next? Well...a few days off, I'll admit. Oddly, I'm actually a little ahead of where I normally am, as I did a lot of the formatting while I was working this time – I've switched back from Google Write to LibreOffice, and again, that makes a surprising difference – so I've got a little while before I need to think about the next project. Not that I'm not already spinning ideas around for the content of 'Forbidden Seas', and 'Final Testament', the next two Alamo novels in the series. (Technically, I've got four plots for two books, and right now it is a question of working out which ones I use first. Likely you'll see all four of them in reasonably short order.)

I do have another project I've been working on for a while, and that's the 'historical swashbuckler' series. I've been doing research and reading for a while on this one, but I finally decided that the answer was to hit the books hard and start compiling notes. More on this tomorrow – or in a couple of days, depending on how I feel in the morning. Usually, I'm not good for anything much the day after I've finished a book, not creatively, anyway. It's as though all the strings have been cut.

And, of course, the nerves now begin in earnest...twelve days until launch....

Triple-Edged Sword, Day Eight

Isaac Asimov once noted that few writers he knew kept a diary; he had apparently attempted it on several occasions, but found that it was taking time away from...his writing. Sometimes I know exactly how he feels; I seem to withdraw completely when I am pounding away on a book, partly because I suspect that the readers of this blog would rather read the next book than a new blog post. Nevertheless, I have managed to drag myself away for a little while.

It turns out that starting from scratch has been a great help in progressing the new book. I'm writing at two or three times the pace I was managing before, and the plot is – for once – flowing like water. As I write this, I've just passed the one-third mark, and I've actually done the first editing pass for a sixth of the book as well, which is a far better ratio than I usually manage! There may be a moral buried in all of this somewhere, about trusting your instincts – in retrospect, I should have abandoned the original book sometime back in January, rather than pressing on into this month as I did. If a book is a struggle to write, it's going to be an even bigger struggle to read!

I normally only write with a very vague outline; I find that if I make it too complicated, I can't do any more work on the actual book. As usual, I've been modifying the book as I go, and my wonderful and tidy sheet of bullet points has been replaced with a scrappy list in a notebook. (Even in the age of computers and word processors, I still find myself filling a notebook every couple of months. Sometimes you just need to scribble something down.

Something else that I think is helping me a lot is the new keyboard. It really makes a huge difference having a bigger screen and a real keyboard, rather than the old Chromebook. Don't get me wrong, the little portable was great, but I should have upgraded years ago. Another moral in this here – make sure you have decent equipment. At the very least, get a proper keyboard! The one I've got only cost £18, and it even has LED backlighting! (Something that I thought would be just a fun little extra, but when it gets towards dusk, it actually seems to help a little – not something I expected!)

Without quite planning it, I think that Triple-Edged Sword is going to be the 'introduction to the series' that I've been wanting to write for a long time. Indeed, I've made several attempts at this in the past, notably 'Aces High', and to an extent 'Malware Blues'. I'm conscious of the fact that this is getting to be a long series – though it still seems strange to think that I'm working on the seventeenth Alamo novel – and that it can be a considerable buy-in if you are starting fresh. Oddly, without quite realizing it, this seems to be better rigged for that.

Naturally, I'm not going to give any details of the plot here, that wouldn't be right, but I will say that this is settling down as a three-POV story (which is, I must confess, a great relief. Writing to four POV characters is a real trial; I think three is about right.) Orlova, Cooper and Salazar are the key players here, though Harper, Nelyubov and the others feature strongly as well, of course.

Reading this post on J. A. Konrath's blog (a blog I can recommend, as it happens) has given me a potential idea for my next little project, and I'm tempted to resurrect the old idea of the 'Battlecruiser Alamo Companion'. Apparently there is a growing trend towards 'Bibliographies' being published on Amazon, and I thought I might follow suit, though with a somewhat enhanced version. What I have vaguely in mind would be around twelve thousand words, at the ninety-nine-cent price point, which would have outlines of the books in the series as well as some essays about the writing of the books. No promises on this one, but I might manage to conjure it up this time!

Well...guess I'd better get back to work. That book won't write itself!

Triple-Edged Sword, Day Four

Well, today was day four of the writing schedule. I did attempt to write up days two and three, but in all honesty, a succinct way of putting it would be 'see day one', as it was primarily the same goal – to put down some sort of structure for the plot I had in mind. At the moment, that outline consists of twenty-nine chapters, but that doesn't actually mean anything. Already, I've merged two chapters with each other to strengthen the plot of the remainder, and often chapters end up being split in half if I think they are running too long.

Today was the first day that I actually seriously put finger to keyboard, and I managed a hair under six thousand words, two chapters. Not a bad start. Those first chapters are always a very difficult balancing act, in that you need to introduce the plot, the characters and the setting while keeping it interesting to the reader – not an easy path to walk. Many times I've ended up simply deleting the first chapter, and the book has been no worse for the lack. The trick is to launch into the action as rapidly as possible, and worry about seeding the bulk of the plot later on.

The other difficulty stems from the knowledge of the reader. When writing a long series, you don't know how people are going to read it. I've had emails telling me that people started in a book other than the first, usually the latest book, so it is important to have enough information that someone who has never read a book in the series can pick up relatively quickly. This is why I trend against direct sequels, as it makes providing such knowledge all but impossible. More likely, the books will be read some weeks or months apart, in which case it is important to provide a few quick reminders about the major characters. That's a lot easier – simply saying 'Spaceman Spinelli at the sensor station', or 'Ensign Cooper, commander of Alamo's Espatier force' is enough. That can make the early chapters a little clunky, but it gets it out of the way. (The third type of reader in this context reads them all at once, one after another – in which case they will know the details of the characters already when picking up the book, and it is important to avoid over-repetition.)

Frankly, I'm always happy once I've got the first three or four chapters behind me, and I can get onto the main business of setting up the problems. Essentially – the first third of the book introduces the problem, the second third escalates the problem, and the final third solves the problem, potentially leaving some loose ends for future books. That's as good a way as any of looking at it.

Something that I have always stressed for those seeking to write quickly is that improving your typing speed is an excellent idea. I'm not going to pretend that I can write books as quickly as I can type – I wish I could do that, I'd be writing a novel in a couple of days – but as the words come to you, it is important to get them onto the screen as fast as you can. There are times I have written four, five hundred words in ten minutes, if I've had a burst of inspiration, and typing speed is important. What is just as important is getting a good keyboard. I picked up a new one a few days ago, one that feels a lot more solid than the one I was using before, and it has improved my speed by thirty percent. Getting a good keyboard is critical; it's your primary tool!

As well as writing two chapters today, I've outlined the next three in more detail, enough that I've done a lot of the heavy thinking already. My plotting produces only a rough outline, and it is important to flesh it out into something a little bulkier, but I find it works best if I do it the night before. That means I have plenty of time to ponder it overnight, then can come to it fresh in the morning. While I'd probably do two chapters on a normal day, I like to have an extra one ready, in case I am able to push on further, which does happen on occasion. And, of course, it is usually less plotting work for the next day! Tomorrow I will also have another treat – the chapters I wrote today, for their first edit...

I do intend to write a post tomorrow; I probably won't write every day, though, especially if it is a choice between a blog post and the novel! Certainly I'll manage a few more this time, though...so, see you tomorrow...

Triple-Edged Sword, Day One

Given the big decision I made a couple of days ago, to abandon work on 'Triple-Edged Sword', and begin a new book with the same title – but, frankly, almost nothing else in common – I thought I might take the opportunity to do something I have been planning to try for a while, to do a daily blog of the writing and editing of a book. I won't promise that these will be incredibly interesting, but I hope they will at least be illuminating. I also hope – very much – that this series will not go on for too long!

Yesterday was eaten up with some long-awaited changes to my office. Specifically, I have a new computer! I've been working on a Chromebook for the last eighteen months, and while it certainly served me well – and I can definitely recommend it – it has been getting irritating, and I finally decided to take advantage of the post-Christmas sales to get myself something new. Which arrived yesterday, in the form of a 21-inch all-in-one PC, as well as a proper keyboard. No more chiclet keys! (Why an all-in-one? Space is always a premium, and I like to have an uncluttered desk. All I have on here is the monitor, keyboard, mouse, a notebook, calculator and a desk tidy for pens and scissors.)

I've allocated two days for the lead-up to this book, and I'm hoping to finish it in twelve, after that. Note that this is hope, and likely will not transform into reality; as a habit I try and shoot high, but with the expectation that I will almost certainly fall short. Pushing for that extra hour of work is usually worth it. Today is focused around two key goals – preparing the crew list, and typing out a rough outline of the book. The first is the most mundane, but absolutely critical. It really is just a question of getting a short list of the crew of Alamo for this mission, just to make sure I keep myself consistent. That takes about half an hour, as a rule. While a lot of it is copied from the previous list, there are always new faces to work in, and some old hands to bring back – a character who left the series in 'The First Duty' is making a return in the new version of 'Triple-Edged Sword'.

What takes up more of the time is the outline. I've started books without a proper outline before, and they have a tendency to be epic disasters, taking far longer than they otherwise would. Now – the important point here is not to go too far. Everyone has their own style of writing, and I find that if I know the plot in too much detail, then I can't write the book – it's as if I already have, and it makes it next to impossible to put down on the page. A sentence per chapter is usually more than sufficient, something like, “Cooper takes his squad over to the space station; finds missing component”. Or, occasionally, “Big Space Battle.” That's enough, because of the next step.

Before I start a chapter, I try to break it down into bullet points, each one about four hundred words on average. That involves boiling down what I want/need to happen in the chapter to advance the general plot or the story of a specific character, as well as making the chapter flow properly, feel as though it has sufficient meat to it. For the 'Cooper' chapter I outlined above – which I stress will not be in the book – it might go something like this.

- Shuttle flight across to station, find sabotaged suit.

- Dock, creepy, eerie, electrical sparks, dead body, locked door.

- Detonate the door, quick gunfight with empty spacesuit, locate console.

- Hooke starts his hack, strange noise, systems activate, scream from the shuttle.

- Races to investigate, weird creature attacking guard, firefight, fell it.

- More readings coming, go and grab Hooke, more creatures come, keep firing, can't make it back to shuttle, seal themselves in.

That should prove interesting to resolve in the next few chapters, I think! It's all about making sure that there is sufficient story, character and action in every chapter. The last thing you need is a 'placeholder' chapter...usually. There is an exception, in that I like to include a couple of 'pause for breath' chapters before the big climax begins, a moment that the reader can, metaphorically, take a deep breath before launching into the final fight.

Another important task for today is to come up with the set-pieces, the locations. Usually, I'll already have these in my head before I start, and often, they can be the impetus for the whole plot. Depending on the story, I might need anywhere from one to three; in 'Malware Blues', for example, I had three – the underwater base, the ruined planet, the scoutship. Alamo is always a location, of course, but it is the 'home base', the point of familiarity. I've got an unlimited effects budget, so I can afford to 'go big'; this book, for example, has a double planet, like Pluto and Charon scaled dramatically up, an Earth-like world orbiting a Venusian Super-Earth. Not a nice place to be.

That's pretty much it for today. Once I've finished the outline and the crew roster, I can relax. Which, I suspect, means pounding away at the keyboard until midnight….

The Alamo That Might Have Been...

What I am about to say doesn't come easy for me; I've been at this now for almost three years, and I can honestly say that this is the first time I've ever done what I finally decided to do today. I have abandoned an Alamo novel. Now, I'm not talking about simply starting over; I've done that on a few occasions, stopped a book and started for scratch, taking a different angle on it, but I always kept the same basic plot idea, the same concept, perhaps just adding or subtracting elements to make things more interesting, speed up the plot. This time, however, I have abandoned work on the current version of 'Triple-Edged Sword' – already on its third draft, indeed – and will be starting over on a new book with the same title.

This book has been sheer torture to write, and over the course of January, I wrote about eighty-five thousand words – and am currently at around the fifty-thousand word mark, giving you an idea of the amount of 'lost material' that I've already generated for this one. Theoretically, I could finish this book with three or four hard days writing, get it completed, but I'm not going to do it. Frankly – it just doesn't work. The plot doesn't hang together, the characters are being dragged around, and the setting isn't engaging in the slightest. And if I find it so – imagine what this turkey would be like to read!

As far as I'm concerned, I have a responsibility to those who read my books to produce the best book I can possibly write. I won't, I can't just 'go through the numbers' with an Alamo work. It means too much to me, the characters and the setting that have evolved over a million words of material. You have the right to expect that I will do the best I possibly can, and this book just isn't it. I suppose I could go back over it, patch it up, but at the end of the day there just isn't sufficient material to make that work. I'd have to do another full line-rewrite, and at this point I might as well start over with something new.

On the off-chance that I do something else with the material in the future, perhaps salvage elements of it for future books, I won't go into too many details here, but suffice to say that it was to be set on Thule, and serve as a sequel to 'Cage of Gold'. The problem is that I didn't leave enough planet-specific loose ends to provide what I consider a satisfactory second plot on that world. Certainly I could set something else on the planet, but not the thematic sequel that I had planned. I'm not saying that I would never return to this world, but not this time. Instead, I'll be going over events from Thule at the start of the book, as an introduction to the long-term plot I have been working to introduce. Alamo is going out into unexplored space, and it is doing it right away; by Chapter Two, it will be on its voyage under its new commander.

This is not as serious a blow as it might first seem, for two reasons. The first is that I already have another plot worked out; this simply means advancing the book that would have been Alamo 18 to instead take Alamo 17's place. If anything, the title 'Triple-Edged Sword' actually works better for this one, to the point that I had seriously been considering switching the titles anyway. As a result, I'll be able to start work on the new book on Wednesday, and I have every expectation of meeting the scheduled release date of February 29th as planned. In all honesty, I seem to work better with tight deadlines anyway!

The second is the most important of all. You always learn a lot more from failure than you ever do from success, and this has been a hell of a learning experience for me. I know what to avoid in future books, what doesn't work for me, and where I need to concentrate in the future. That's something, hopefully, that will pay off in future books. As to the many, many words that I have already written, I actually don't know at the moment. Likely there are some bits and pieces I will extract at some point, as there were some scenes I was legitimately proud of, and might well end up using in future books. The battle sequence I had planned as an ending would have been good, I think – and I will almost certainly make use of it at some point. It is possible that I will make time to finish it at some point, but I would not consider selling it. Both because I do not consider it an example of my best work, and because very soon, it will be non-canon. Going back to this book certainly isn't a top priority, I'll put it that way, but I might do a quick job on the ending at some point, cap it off, and perhaps put it out as 'The Alamo That Might Have Been'...

And there we are, full circle. Now I guess I'd better get to work on 'Triple-Edged Sword'. Blank pages await!